Friday at the MoMA - NoMA

I am so clever...

I decided to go to the MoMA on Friday - no class and an empty calendar (actually, that happens rather often here). When I get to 51st St., where the museum is located, there are barricades set up along the sidewalk with MoMA banners on them and a LONG line of people behind them. I ask and find out that Friday from 4-8 they offer free admission when it usually costs $18/person. I am there at 3:30! BUT, I get to go right in because I bought a membership, I check my coat and I rush up to the top floor and begin to make my way down, thinking everyone else will do the opposite.

Sadly, the Matisse exhibit is gone and I am sorely disappointed. I would love to have seen that up close a few more times. I loved the simplicity of his shapes and the complexity of his color. I spent a lot of time taking close, close photos of details in a few Monets, Cezannes and Picassos (you can take photos in this museum!) and brought them home to remember how important each and every inch of the painting is.

I noticed on Saturday, at my painting class, the last hour or so I was simply spreading paint on the canvas to fill in all the white (we are required to bring 4' square canvases to cover) and so, instead of making every brush stroke and every color a deliberate action - it became a fill in the blank operation. If you notice this detail shot, the leg in Picassos' painting here has just about every color in it - the shadow is not a grayer version of flesh tone - it is purple and blue and green (and red and orange...). They are small strokes of clear, beautiful color - Matisse will scrape off some of these layers to get to a different color below. This is what makes their paintings so fabulous (I think).

I will add a photo of my painting here when I take one next Saturday before I begin, again, slowly and deliberately and, hopefully, beautifully.

Oh, so by 4:30, the place was screaming with people and it was no longer a place of contemplation. Getting my coat OUT of the coat check took another hour, the line was that long. Fridays are not a good day to go to the MoMA UNLESS you want to go for free. And not see anything.